Scott Jennings | Kentucky Republicans should note 'Bull Durham'

There's a great baseball movie called "Bull Durham." In this film, a young fireballing Minor League pitcher with a weird name -Ebby Calvin "Nuke" LaLoosh - is tutored by a savvy veteran catcher named Crash Davis. Their relationship ultimately leads to success for both players and their team, the Durham Bulls.

In the movie, the big league club signed Davis and sent him to minor league outpost Durham, N.C., to mold LaLoosh into a Major League pitcher. Before Davis came along, LaLoosh was a wild thrower who struck out and walked 18 batters in the same game ("new league records!" the assistant coach exclaims). It was clear the young pitcher had talent and could go far if he would only listen to advice from his new, sage catcher.

Along the way we learn that Davis is much more than a past-his-prime advisor - he's a talented player in his own right about to set a home run record, a natural leader whose accumulated baseball wisdom makes him a valuable part of the team.

After a rocky beginning to their relationship, LaLoosh and Davis gel into a solid battery that spurs the Durham Bulls to win after win and sees the young pitcher through to the Major Leagues. Two teammates who initially had a fist fight in the back alley of a local bar wind up close allies who achieve great success.

I love this movie but only recently realized its foreshadowing of today's Republican Party, which features two similar players who could well combine to propel the GOP to victory (and one of the players to the White House).

Enter fireballing pitcher Rand Paul, who burst on to the political scene with a serious amount of talent but sometimes dinged the GOP's elephant mascot with a pitch or two. And meet his teammate, Mitch McConnell, the wise veteran working with Paul to win his own re-election campaign and perhaps even send Paul to the Major Leagues, er, the White House.

The relationship started a little rocky. McConnell and Paul brawled in 2010 over an open U.S. Senate seat. But the moment Paul won the GOP nomination, McConnell threw in with the young talent and began working with him on blending McConnell's veteran, establishment organization with the new blood and grassroots energy Paul brings to the Republican Party.

In the movie, the two players had little in common and were clearly at different stages of their lives and careers. And such is the case for Kentucky's U.S. senators. But both pairs share perhaps the most important characteristic an athlete or a politician can possess: an instinct for winning.

In the movie and in real life, the instinct for winning shaped the relationship of the players and boosted the team.

But there is one thing happening in real life that didn't happen in the movie. Some of Rand Paul's supposed biggest supporters don't want him working with McConnell. They would rather Paul hit the sportswriter, the public address announcer, and the team mascot with pitch after pitch, even if it means fracturing the GOP and losing elections.

For these supposed Rand fans, winning is secondary to authenticity. They loved Rand Paul's father for slamming the hated "establishment," never minding the fact that Ron Paul lost three presidential campaigns.

He lacked an instinct for winning.

And herein lies the genius of the pragmatic Rand Paul, whose instinct for winning tells him to partner with his veteran teammate McConnell rather than fight him in an alley behind the bar every night.

The question for the rankled Rand fans sitting in the bleachers of the political stadium is whether they are going to stop booing Paul every time he and McConnell team up to strike out Democrats, or if they'll keep heckling their hero while attempting to beat his veteran colleague.

In his current bid for re-election McConnell faces hectoring from a few supposed Rand fans who just can't see the good in the Paul-McConnell partnership. They can't see that blending the establishment and the tea party, old blood with new, could lead to many conservative victories in 2014 and 2016.

These hecklers lack an instinct for winning.

Rand Paul is supporting Mitch McConnell for re-election to the U.S. Senate presumably because he recognizes McConnell's ability to use his years of political experience to thwart President Barack Obama's liberal agenda as a good thing. And for that Paul faces jeering from his own supporters who contradict themselves by telling the press how much they support Paul but simultaneously plan to beat up on the guy Paul thinks should lead the Senate Republican conference.

In the movie, no bleacher hecklers call for Crash Davis' removal from the team when Nuke LaLoosh starts throwing strikes and the Durham Bulls start winning. Hopefully, the bleacher hecklers in today's GOP will realize what a potent - if unlikely - combination McConnell and Paul truly are.

These two talented senators share a powerful instinct for winning that will ultimately be a very good thing for a party that just lost a national election and needs to get its mojo back. The GOP will emerge stronger when all the conservatives inside of it learn to work together, following the example of Kentucky's own Nuke and Crash.

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Scott Jennings | Kentucky Republicans should note 'Bull Durham'

There's a great baseball movie called 'Bull Durham.' In this film, a young fireballing Minor League pitcher with a weird name ?Ebby Calvin 'Nuke' LaLoosh ? is tutored by a savvy veteran catcher named